You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Daily Breakthrough Bread | August 29, 2026

Ephesians 5:15-17

KEY VERSE

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Ephesians 5:16, KJV

We have more ways of saving time than perhaps any generation before us, and yet we seem to have less time for God.

Think about what we have been handed. We have advanced transportation, instant communication, machines that do in minutes what once took hours, and devices in our hands whose very purpose is to make life more efficient. Technology has shortened distances, automated labour, and given us back hours that previous generations would have spent on things we now do almost effortlessly.

And yet, somehow, we are always short of time.

Where did the hours go?

Paul says, “Redeeming the time.”

To redeem is to buy up, to seize what is available before it passes away. The apostle is telling us not to let our opportunities for God slip through our hands.

And perhaps that is where we have deceived ourselves. We speak of time as though someone has stolen it from us. We say, “I don’t have time to pray. I don’t have time to read the Bible. I am too busy.”

But often nothing was stolen.

We handed it over ourselves, in small pieces, without noticing.

Five minutes here. Twenty minutes there. A little scrolling. A little entertainment. Another conversation. Another video. Another notification. And before we know it, the day is gone.

We complain that we have no time for God, while giving our best attention to everything else.

And there is something strange about abundance. Having more has not necessarily made us more generous. Sometimes it has only given us better excuses. We have more ways of saving time, but we have also found more ways of spending it.

So we come to God like a hungry man saying grace with his fork already in his hand: three hurried minutes, our eyes half on the clock, and then we are gone.

An hour of prayer, something our fathers might have considered ordinary, we now speak of as though it were almost impossible.

“I cannot pray for an hour.”

But somehow an hour can disappear on a phone without us feeling that we have wasted anything.

Here is the wound, and I would not have you look away from it:

The problem may not be that you are too busy. The problem may be that your heart has learned to prefer other things.

When the morning or evening had to go somewhere, it went where your heart already was.

Hours always do.

Look at where your time went yesterday, and you may discover what you love today, whether you like the answer or not.

So do not begin with your calendar.

Begin with your heart.

Do not merely say, “Lord, help me manage my time better.”

Tell Him the truth.

“Lord, I have had time for many things, but I have not had a heart for You.”

And if you find that you have lost your hunger for God, do not pretend that you have it. And do not condemn yourself merely because you have lost it.

A sick man does not scold himself for having no appetite. He goes to the physician and says plainly, “I cannot eat.”

Say that to Christ today.

Tell Him that your heart has become distracted. Tell Him that prayer has become difficult. Tell Him that Scripture no longer draws you as it once did. Tell Him that you have lost your taste for Him.

And then ask Him for it back.

Because the answer is not merely to find more time.

It is to find again the One for whom time is worth giving.

When Christ becomes precious to you, you will not have to be persuaded to make room for Him. Love will begin to reclaim the hours.

You cannot buy back yesterday.

But you have today.

Redeem it.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, my time goes where my heart goes, and too often my heart did not go to You. I cannot buy back yesterday, but I have today. Give me a hunger for Yourself that I do not now feel. Restore my appetite for Your Word, my delight in prayer, and my desire for Your presence. Let my hours follow my heart back to You. Teach me to redeem the time before it passes away. Amen.

TODAY’S CHALLENGE

Read Luke 10:38-42. Read carefully. Ask yourself: Have the legitimate demands of my life become an excuse for neglecting the one thing that is needful?

KEY TAKEAWAY

Your hours always go where your heart already is. If you have no time for God, don’t only examine your schedule. Examine your heart.